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Victor Rodriguez

Published 1:57 pm, Friday, October 1, 2010

Early voting for the Nov. 2 General Election starts Monday, Oct. 18, and it's gearing up to be another nasty political season in the South San Antonio Independent School District where three school board seats are on the ballot.

Already the stealth mailers have begun appearing in this district where an unusual number of anonymous "newsletters" get sent out every election cycle.

A "West Campus News" packet hit mailboxes a few weeks ago taking aim at Helen Madla, the widow of the late Sen. Frank Madla, who is trying to make a comeback on the board.

Some will recall she served on the board from 1986 to 1989 and finally quit at the urging of her husband.

The $1.05 postage it cost to send out the newsletter has left many South San voters wondering who funded it, but thus far no one has claimed ownership.

The newsletter offers some interesting reading. Its chock full of newspaper clips from the days when Madla served on the board.

"Petty Politics: Students are victims in school board warfare" reads one headline. "South San school board problem community-related, decades old" and "State official warns South San to clean up its act" top some of the other clips.

Sadly not much has changed over the last 20 years. Those could be headlines yanked from recently published news articles.

School board elections have always been high stakes in South San and it's usually not about education and the children. It makes you wonder how great this district might be if they could stop the political battling and channel all their resources toward a united goal that does not involve politics and personal agendas.

The reality, however, is that's not going to happen any time soon.

For decades this district has been under the tight control of one political faction or another. The struggle for control never ceases.

In this election cycle, school board President Manuel Lopez, who keeps tight control over the operation of the district, is up for re-election along with one of his strong board allies, Santiago Aguilar.

Former City Councilman Raul Prado's political machine, which controlled the district for a long time, is working hard to shake up the current power structure.

Prado's wife, Connie Prado who is a current school board member, has filed a letter with the county's election department challenging 40 voters in the South San district with addresses that she said are connected to Lopez and his family.

Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacquelyn Callanen will investigate and send letters to voters asking them to verify that they do indeed live at those addresses, and steps could be taken to remove them from the voting rolls if they are not verified. Permanently removing the challenged voters from the rolls could take three to four years.

Several of the voter registrations being challenged are using the Price Road address where Lopez's mother lives. There are nine registered voters at that one address, according to county election records.

Connie Prado's letter alleges that some of the voters registered at that address have homes in other parts of the city that they claim as their homesteads for tax purposes.

It will be interesting if all of the 40 challenged voters end up casting a ballot. In low-turnout elections, a few dozen votes on the bottom ballot races can determine the outcome.

South San elections are never without drama.

Campaigns in the school district has been investigated several times by various law enforcement agencies for voting irregularities especially regarding the ballots submitted by the elderly.

I will be curious to see how many mail-in ballots will be cast in this school board election and if the voters have any recollection of having cast them.